Random thoughts on Friday

April 26, 2013

This morning I woke up at 3am! And the worst thing about it is I was awake. I mean properly awake. I took a melatonin in hopes of falling back asleep before I actually had to get up at 6:30, and fell into a sort of half sleep, half dozing state and the alarm woke me up from a most horrific dream. (And I’m thinking, “what the hell…for this I don’t drink caffeine?!?”) 🙁

What is it about bad dreams? What do you believe? I sort of think that it’s my subconscious trying to work out some situation I’m having problems with in real life, but if that’s true, what is my grandmother, now gone for millions of years, doing in my dream…and aliens in my house…and why won’t my cell phone work on their planet? Ok, well, maybe I understand that last one.

So my brain’s not all that sharp today, I mean, insomnia and all those aliens hiding in cupboards eating all my apple jelly…so here’s a bunch of random thoughts from my fuzzy brain:

1. To my mind, there’s very little in this world that can come close to the wonderfulness of crisp, white, air-dried cotton sheets. Can anyone think of anything better? (well, apart from the obvious: sharing those crisp, white, air-dried cotton sheets with your love later that evening)

2. The previous owners plunked this lovely, rustic bird box on the top of the pole holding the drying line. A little chickadee family has nested there last year and has staked the box out again this year. It’s a perfect place for them because it’s a good 20ft off the ground and nothing much can get up there. The only problem is that the line vibrates the pole and the box, and the chickadees come storming out giving me the middle claw on their way to the neighbour’s huge copper beech, where they shout at me. So then I feel bad about using the line.

3. So to make them, and me, feel better I filled up the bird bath with fresh water and the bird feeder with seed.

4. I don’t really care who gets the seed though. Squirrels are just as welcome as are the crows and the rosy house finches, and the chickadees. It’s a first come first served policy round here. I know there are a lot of birders, (and my neighbours), out there who will argue that I should do my best to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder, but I like the squirrels. I think they’re funny and love how they climb right inside the feeder and have their own personal banquet and, besides, everyone has to make a living somehow in this world.

5. All my neighbours are swearing about and digging up extra bluebell bulbs with a vengeance. I don’t get that either. I’m saving them from the lane construction site and from my neighbours compost piles, and transplanting them all over the place. You know, I have a city garden and I just picked this large bunch of bluebells and it didn’t even make a dent in the flower beds. Besides, they don’t really last long, I think they’re over with by June for sure, and I want to enjoy them as much as possible.

So I’m thinking that with my wonderful fresh sheets and the bluebells and my windows open to the night air, I just might get a good night’s sleep.

What a fabulous garden you’ve got with tulips and bluebells and squirrels and birds of all sorts. I am so ready to move out of this apartment and into a house where I can have a garden. Sigh. Not just yet, I fear.
Bad dreams: I am usually late for a photography gig and can’t find all my equipment. No wondering what that means 🙂
You’re so lucky the melatonin helps, even a bit. Sweet dreams tonight.

Hello Jennifer my WSS friend. Oh those dreams where you can’t find your stuff are frustrating! I keep all my serious photo equipment in one place now. Too many forgotten lenses and cards. 🙂 Thank you so much for the wish, sweet dreams to you in paradise too. 🙂

Yes to the white crisp sheets, love em too, I love anything white. The Bluebells are lovely, digging them up that is disturbing. When I was little and had bad dreams, my Dad taught me a trick I still practice, I program my dreams, I pick the topic, the place and the general tone and except when I am really bothered by a big lifie issue, it seems to work.

Aliens eating your jelly…my goodness…NO! You know I love that you hang sheets. The county I live in (Gwinnett County in the state of Georgia) will not allow outdoor clothes lines unless you live in a rural zoning; I do not. I grew up on a farm, so I do know how wonderful they feel. Sleep better tonight.

I remember dreaming about library books being overdue by something like 20 years. The ones that really puzzle me have people from different times in your life in the same dream. I can never figure out why my mind is bringing those people together.

Wonderful thoughts – and entertaining, I had no idea that aliens ate apple jelly, I’ll try and stock up on some in case they come over here (gotta keep your aliens happy). The photo of the bird bath and flowers is stunning. I’m with you – fresh sheets right off the clothesline. I would gather the pretty flower bulbs too – one thing I love in a garden is a flower that will take over – I say let them go and enjoy the bouquets.

We have black squirrels here lately – not sure what happened to the gray ones, maybe it is their summer to vacation away from home. The gray squirrels will take amazing leaps about in the trees, the black ones are more sedate – but chattier.

Hi Jo, 🙂 Apparently the aliens do. 🙂 I love how the squirrels leap from branch to branch. I’ve also seen them hang upside down from their back paws along the line of the bird feeder we have in England to get at the nuts. Funny little guys. 🙂

Oh no Diane! That’s only happened to me once. I think I have such an unlimited imagination that my dreams always twist a way out for me. 🙂 Ice cream, hmmm. Robert gets bad dreams after he eats strong cheese in the evening.

I have some pretty wild dreams too — usually occurring if I wake up too early and then go back to sleep — or maybe I just remember those! Love your chickadee story — they should be grateful that you provide them with a home, instead of giving you the claw…. : )

Gosh, Sarah, you sound just like me. Yeah, I was thinking that I probably have lots more dreams earlier that I just don’t remember. Thank you so much for visiting and leaving me your addy because now I can come visit you. 🙂

Your garden looks so gorgeous, and i am with you on the bluebells i would love to have a carpet of them under the trees but they just won’t grow and spread for me like they do for other people, I lived in a forest in kent for a while once and it was ablaze with them in the spring, i used to carefully carry out a chair and my book and my wine and place myself right in the middle of them to read..sweet dearms c

I am sure you have seen them over there too, so beautiful.. I have always liked being alone with the gardens or woods or nature , it seems that if there is more than one conversation going on we miss her nodding silent words.. c

SOMETIMES I wake in the middle of the night and get myself back to sleep. IF, within the half hour, I cannot, I just give up, come downstairs, read the news or things on the Internet for about a half hour and then stumble back up to bed. Either way, I don’t like it…the disrupted sleep cycle really does make me much more groggy and out of it the next day 🙁

Hi Debra, that sounds like a reasonable thing to do. Sometimes I wonder how I used to do it, you know, stay up all night studying or with the babies and then function the next day…ugh…hurts to lose sleep now.

I know what you mean about those dreams. This past month I seem to be waking up too early, so I drink water, sometimes take an aspirin, then go back to bed, fall asleep only to have strange dreams & nightmares wake me up. I guess for me I should just stay up instead of going back to bed, the dreams are disturbing and often just “real” enough to give me pause.

I always wondered why people dug up and threw out the sweetly scented bluebells too, and squirrels are so much fun to watch, why can’t we pay them in seeds for the entertainment value they bring? I think they give us more wholesome entertainment than t.v. any day.

Hi Kathy, this month is the same for me, sort of a six hour sleep and then wide awake, (except for the 3am wake ups). Yeah, I don’t get the bluebell thing either. They are so grateful and completely happy to grow under trees, in small cracks, on shady, dry parts where nothing else will grow. I love them.

I have those sorts of early morning dreams, too. They are always unsettling! I feel the same way you do about feeders and I love squirrels, too. More power to them! And chipmunks. The bluebells are so very pretty – what is the reason behind the desire to dig them up? I’d plant them, too.

Hi Claudia, thank you for hosting this fun Friday meet. 🙂 I wish we had chipmunks here in the city. I love them to pieces. I think the reason for bluebell destruction is that they are very prolific and also their leaves are very moisture retentive and can give shelter to slugs, and carpet thickly so sometimes choke out other plants close by. But then, they grow anywhere at all. And I mean anywhere, so perfect for those spots where nothing else wants to grow. 🙂

That sounds like some dream you were having – it does make me wonder what sort of problem you subconscious is working out. Clean, crisp white sheet – yes! I love the bluebells, but squirrels – not so much. We had a heck of a time trying to get them out of our attic, so I’d be pretty happy if I never saw another one. Happy Sunday!

I was shaking my head in agreement with everything including the lack of sleep. I had nightmares, too. Do you think it’s because of all the horror of the last few weeks? Maybe we carry that around in our minds, and it seeks a way to work its way out in our dreams.

That being said, love, love, LOVE white cotton sheets, love bluebells, and adore squirrels. I could sit and photograph them for hours. They drink out of our fountain, and sometimes, I look out the kitchen window and find them sitting on top of the fountain boy’s head, like a squirrelskin cap of sorts. It’s so cute.

I’m so glad Sheila. 🙂 I’m sure the horror of the past week is a big contributor to our nightmares. That’s the reason I tend not to follow the news past the headlines. Thank you for leaving your addy; I’m on my way to visit you now. 🙂